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FUBLTO SOFTOOLS 



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ABlx\GTON, MASS., 



DELIVERED SABBATH, JULY 10th, 1859. 



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REV. HENRY L. EDWARDS, 



BOSTON: 
PRINTED BY J. E. FARWELL & CO., 32 CONGRESS STREET. 

18 59. 



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OCCASIONED BY THE 



!r0|iWtioii 0f ^;rtcinpTaHcmts Hrpcr, 



m THE 



FUBLIC SCHOOLS 



OP 



ABINGTON, MASS., 



DELIVERED SABBATH, JULY 10th, 1859. 



BY 



REV. HENRY L. EDWARDS, 



BOSTON: 
PKINTED BY J. E. FARWELL & CO., 32 CONGRESS STREET. 

1859. 



South Abington, July 19, 1859. 
Dear Sib, — 

We, the undersigned, believing that the publication of the ser- 
mon preached by you last Sabbath P. M., from the -words, "Train up a child 
in the way he should go," would advance the cause of Religion, and tend to 
promote the prosperity of our Public Schools, would very respectfully solicit a 
copy for the above named purpose. 

Hopirg it may seem advisable to you to accede to our request, we remain, Sir, 
Very Respectfully, Yours, 

JAMES SOULE, 

And forty-four others. 
To Rev. H. L. Edwards. 



South Abington, Aug. 1st, 1859. 
Gentxemen, — 

In answering your request of July 19tb, I must, at least, be 
allowed to say, that the discourse to which you refer was prepared without 
the remotest thought of its publication. But I should do wrong to resist the 
unanimous expression of so many of my esteemed fellow citizens, of different 
denominations. , 

Sincerely Yours, 

HENRY L. EDWARDS. 



DISCOURSE. 



Proverbs, xxii : vi. — Train uj) a child in the way he should go ; and when he 
is old, he will not depart from it. 

The first part of tliis proverb contains counsel ; the second, the 
reason for complying. First, the duty ; secondly, the inducement. 
Educate the young aright, and thou shalt be recompensed in their 
riper years. Even when they are old and gray, they will be true to 
their early training. " They will not depart," says the inspired 
writer, and pens that are uninspired, have repeated the plain truth, 
till the expression is threadbare. The well known couplet of Pope, 
for example, — 

" 'Tis education forms the common mind ; 
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inch'ned." 

" For character groweth day by day," says another, 

" And the bent unto good or evil may be given in infancy. 

Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil, 

The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come. 

Even so mayst thou guide the mind to good ; 

For disposition is builded up by the fashioning of first impressions : 

The habit of obedience and 'trust may be grafted in the cradle. 

Hold the little hands in prayer ; teach the weak knees their kneeling ; 

Let it see thee speaking to thy God : 

The touching recollection of thy prayers shall arrest the strong man in his sin.' 

Be sure it is often otherwise. Tou have seen individuals trai- 
torous to early influences ; despising the prudence and piety of pa- 
rents and preceptors; reversing the order of nature, and madly 
retreating toward perdition — " their last state worse than the first." 
But this is not the rule. The great majority remain as they com- 
mence ; continue as they are taught ; and so natural is this result 



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6 



so comiDon, and so mucli anticipated, it excites no remark; while 
occasional exceptions to the rule are notable, or notorious, just be- 
cause they are against nature, and not according to expectation. If 
a young man shuns the paths and pitfalls of a vicious parentage, and 
redeems the reputation of a dishonored name, we dwell upon it as a 
distinguished and creditable achievement : or, if it be a virtuous ex- 
ample and virtuous precepts which the young man disregards, and 
a fair family escutcheon which the young man defiles, the same is 
true. We notice him, we talk about him, we remember him. It is 
not what we had a right to look for. It is a perversion ; it is a falsi- 
fication ; it is an exception to the law of nature, which generally 
perpetuates its own impress, whether in the material or spiritual 
world, from age to age. The rule remains — exceptions only con- 
firm it. Yes, how many pursue persistently, for weal or woe, the 
path that is laid out for them by progenitors or instructors. The in- 
fluence is very strong — it almost always prevails. It acts as a 
charm, and but now and then one escapes the potent spell. The 
multitude are drawn upward, from their childhood, or lured down- 
ward, by the agency of others ; so true it is, that 

" Character is mainly moulded by the cast of minds that surround it ; 
And that which immemorial use hath sanctified, seemeth to be right and true." 

Now this is the point of the proverb. Here appears its importance. 
There must be virtuous influences from the outset. The youth must 
be started right ; even infancy must ; and this because one does not 
easily alter the course which he has commenced. Habit sets in 
stronger and stronger. He soon acquires a momentum, and moves 
on, as a general rule, right or wrong. This is all the proverb im- 
plies. No proverb is invariably exemplified, but generally. It 
would hardly be a proverb, if it proved true in every case ; for, what 
is a proverb ? It is a wise saying. But there is no special wisdom 
in stating what every one sees to be always and uniformly true. 
No ; these proverbs are generalizations, and there will be exceptions, 
and you are in danger of being deceived. Be not deceived. Char- 
acter will commonly continue as it is initiated. You can act upon 
this understanding. You can depend upon it as a rule. " Train 
up " those that are committed to your care, with the expectation that 
they will abide by what they are taught, and " not depart." 






It seems quite unnecessary now to remark, that the subject of this 
^ inspired proverb, is Human Education ; which I shall further discuss ; 
for education is the handmaid of religion. Nay ; in its highest 
reach, it is religion itself; the soul being educated, conducted, on- 
ward and upward, to the throne of God. 

I. Accordingly, let us inquire, in what education consists. If we 
mistake not, the very terms of the text will help to define it ; which 
reads, most literally ; « Train up a child according to his ivay ; " ac- 
cording to the constitution of his being, in other words. This is 
" the way he should go," as the English has it. " He should go " 
as he was made to go. He should be trained according to the con- 
stituents of his nature. He should be educated in view of the capaci- 
ties with which he is endowed. These should be developed. This 
will be his education ; not so much the ingathering of knowledge, 
therefore, as the unfolding of his faculties ; the expansion of heredit- 
ary powers ; the enlargement of germs, which are inborn and in- 
nate. Educating, therefore, requires a true understanding of hu- 
mankind. You must know what you have to deal with. You 
must be acquainted with the qualities of the soil which you cultivate 
else you act at great disadvantage. And you must take into ac- 
count the whole being ; not certain capabilities merely. Man is an 
aggregation of individual endowments. He is matter and mind. 
He is soul and substance He has physical faculties to be developed ; 
intellectual faculties ; moral and religious faculties. Altoo-ether, 
these constitute the man. He is the resultant of so many several 
principles. Subtract any part and he would not belong to the hu- 
man genus. Educate one part and not another, the product will be 
as imperfect as your philosophy is false. You misapprehend man. 
Suppose a child should be nourished, and cherished, and cared for, 
simply as an intellectual being ; having indeed an infantine intellect, 
but its physical wants, its natural appetites, its instinctive weaknesses 
and liabilities, all forgotten. Its parents or protectors put a plenty 
of mental pabulum in reach, but forget its need of food, and warmth 
and sleep. What is the consequence? Why; in a few days the 
child is dead ; and nobody wonders. The child was not treated ac- 
cording to its constitution. Its nature was not understood ; it starved. 
How rare are such mistakes — indeed unknown ; but how numerous 



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8 



are analagous mistakes ; for there are spiritual appetites, as crav- 
ing and imperious as those of the flesh. The soul must he fed ; the 
moral nature must he nourished ; the immortal mind must he min- 
istered unto. Only a little while after the individual has set out in 
life, these ethereal, incorporeal appetites appear. They cry for sym- 
pathy ; they call for truth ; they require trust. Think how early 
these elements of an immortal existence are disclosed. Reason, af_ 
fection, faith, how soon they are to he seen. Can they he prudently 
neglected ? Can a true education exclude any of these grand con- 
stituencies of the soul? Nay; hut these immaterial faculties shall 
he vital and immortal, when the frail tenements of clay that contain 
them, shall have crumbled to dust. Is that, then, to he called educa- 
tion, which overlooks the permanent, and spends itself upon the perish- 
able ; neglects that which allies us to God, and concerns itself wholly 
with man's mortal relationships ? Why no ; because you are to ed- 
ucate what there is to be educated ; to develop what there is to be 
developed. If there is a body to be enlarged, it must not be over- 
looked. If there is a soul to be instructed, you must seek for that 
result. On the one hand, the rudiments of physical health and 
strength must be guarded and cultivated ; on the other, the seeds 
of mental and moral capacity must be watched over as much at least, 
and made to grow. Whatever there is inherent, must be called out. 
This is the principle : " Train up a child " according to his constitu- 
tion. If he was made to be muscular, let him be trained with that 
intent ; if he was made to think, and resolve, and be moved with 
emotion, let him be dealt with as such a being ; if he was made 
to believe, and love, and obey God, let him be educated with this un- 
derstanding. If his constitution does not show in what his education 
should consist, I see not how we can tell at all. We argue that man is 
created carniverous, because he is furnished with incisor-teeth, for cut- 
ting and tearing flesh, and organs to digest it. It is the argument 
of design. And so, if he has the faculties of motion, and thought, 
and feeling, and faith, we reasonably infer that it was meant he 
should move, and think, and be in the exercise of sensibility and 
trust ; and that the full development of these capacities will consti- 
tute his education. This seems like sound logic. It seems rather 
like plain common sense ; too plain to bear expression ; and espe- 



9 



cially as the material is provided, to supply these capacities, as 
flesh is furnished for food, in the illustration ; and such is certainly 
the fact. We have not one power which is not supplied. We have 
not a faculty, physical or immaterial, which does not find its own 
field of action and fulfillment, fitted to its use. Our corporeal pow- 
ers have the whole fflobe for their theatre. Our intellectual ener- 
gies may range over the universe of truth. Society evokes the sus- 
ceptibilities of our moral nature ; while God, and the great realities 
of faith, invite attention from every religious liability of the soul. 
The full unfolding of the powers upon their appropriate objects, 
must then answer to the idea of human education, and this is what 
the " wise man" means, in the recommendation of the text. Do this 
and the child will be trained in the " way he should go." The in- 
tentions of his being will be realized. 

And how shall this training be accomplished ? By exercise. De- 
velopment implies exercise. It is this that calls forth the slumber- 
ing energies. The intellect must act, if you would know its capacity. 
The heart must be moved, if you would test its power; just as these 
nerves, and bones, and limbs of the body must be exerted, in order 
to the development of their strength. And the faculty of religious 
faith, which finds God, and confides in God, is no exception. It 
must be exercised. The faculty must be educated, exerted. That 
is to say, it must respond, and repeatedly respond, to the voice of 
God, in the soul, and in his Word. Otherwise, this part of us will 
remain forever a grand deficit. It will fail of its great end. 

And what are the ends of human education. Why sliould the 
individual be developed ? Let the attributes of his own being 
answer. It is already answered. He possesses imperishable en- 
dowments. He is made for immortality. He should tlien be trained 
for immortality. His education, from first to last, sliould have this 
lofty end in view. Any theory which rejects this idea, will be funda- 
mentally at fault. His relations to this world are not to be over- 
looked, of course. They are not likely to be. The greater includes 
the less. Indeed, you cannot educate an individual for a higher 
sphere, without educating him for that which precedes. We may, 
however, have a narrow understanding of human nature and human 
destiny, and not once think that the education of such a being as 




10 



ours, is its development for all ages and eons. This is a very com- 
mon error, and very pernicious ; for the present life is of too much 
consequence — we cannot afford to pass through it without laying up 
in store for the next. To " train up a child," therefore, " in the way 
he should go," is to treat the same as having a dying body, but an 
undying soul ; and beside, as being related both to finite and infinite 
intelligences ; not as though one were isolated in unversal space, the 
only being in existence. Education would then be a very different 
idea. Now, it must be shaped with reference to our wide-spread 
relationships. Our own welfare is but one end of our development ; 
for we are related to society ; and we are to be educated in view of 
this second and sublimer end. We are also related to God ; and this 
transcendent fact holds out the siiblimest end of all education. 

It has been remarked, that a word of beautiful significance, which 
is found in one of the first records on the subject of public education 
ever made on this continent, has now fallen wholly out of use. On 
the 13th of April, 1635, Mr. Philemon Purmont, of Boston, was 
" entreated to become a schoolmaster for the nourtering of children ;" 
and it is supposed that this obsolete word, implied a disposition, on 
the part of the teacher, to cultivate in the mind of the scholar, all 
kindly sympathies toward men, all elevated thoughts respecting the 
duties and destiny of life, and a supreme reverence for the character 
and attributes of the Creator. 

"VVe have not chosen, in this discourse, to make any special account 
of the fact that man is a sinner, and therefore needs discipline, as 
such ; but only that he is a creature of God. We have considered 
education, as the normal developement of man's nature ; that which 
he would need if he were not a sinner ; as being accomplished, more- 
over, by the exercise of his powers in their appropriate sphere ; in 
full recollection of the fact that he is firmly allied to Jehovah, and 
an unending future. 

II. Let us dwell upon a few reflections that flow from the subject. 

I. We shall not fail to observe, for one thing, that the cause of edu- 
cation is one of great magnitude. It covers a broad territory. It 
commences early, and its effects are forever. It has to do with the 
whole nature of man, with every faculty of his being. It is con- 
cerned with all he is to be and to do, as he moves onward in a bound- 



11 



less existence. It doterinines his experience in the present world ; it 
tells of the influence he shall exert, fortunately or unfortunately, upon 
the character and condition of the human race ; and then it decides 
his eternal destiny. What length and hreadth, what depth and 
height. Vast in its hearings upon a single soul, but immeasurably 
magnified as it reaches forth to every intelligent creature, and em- 
braces a world in its wide results. Surely we contemplate no trivial 
theme, we pray for no common cause, we act for no ordinary ends, 
when we ask the favor of Heaven upon our youth and the rising 
race ; when we devise the best things, and put forth our earnest 
efforts to promote their improvement. God is interested in the great 
issue, A world-wide commonwealth of fellow beings has an interest 
at stake ; for there is no part of humanity which may not be reached 
in time, and reformed. Let us then rise to a right estimate of this 
subject ; remember wherein the education of an immortal being con- 
sists, and the vital consequences that follow. 

II. We are led to reflect, furthermore, on the instrumentality which 
the Puritans, and the Pilgrims, and our enlightened forefathers of a 
later date, have put forth for the advancement of this great cause. 
We find the first record on this subject, in the town of Boston, in 
1634. Eighteen years afterwards, the General Court enacted that 
every child should be educated ; and five years later, the support of 
schools was made compulsory. This is a single fact. But why did 
our fathers feel an interest in education ? Partly because they 
understood it ; because they had broad views of its significance ; 
because they saw how it was linked in with religion, and was intimately 
related to man's highest and holiest capabilities. " Religion, Educa- 
tion, and Freedom," have well been termed " their triple motto." 
It is not strange, therefore, that those men of immortal memory, 
who migrated to these shores, should have made it their first busi- 
ness to build sanctuaries and school houses for God and posterity. 
It was carrying out their profound convictions of human duty and 
human destiny. It was, in substance, what their predecessors had 
nobly undertaken to demonstrate, in their Genevan-exile, amid the 
liberty -loving mountains of Switzerland. It was what such men 
achieved, substantially, in establishing the Independence of Scotland, 
and the Puritan Commonwealth of England. It was what such 



12 



men demonstrated, at length, in this new world, and is a demonstration 
still, with all its drawbacks : for, not till the sun be blotted from the 
sky, — nay ; not till Deity be dethroned, shall true Keligion and 
Education, or even Liberty, be divorced. These mighty agencies 
have always gone together, when in truth they have progressed at 
all, joined as with hooks of steel. They will not flourish separately, 
but perish, as for any effect. So our fathers and earlier genera- 
tions believed ; so they acted. They did not shut up religion, by 
itself, in the sanctuary ; nor learning in the academy ; nor liberty 
in the legislature ; but the cherished three were made to interpene- 
trate each other, and exert their effects everywhere. The meeting 
house was the place of highest education ; the school house was open 
to religion ; while both were sacred to the cause of freedom, and the 
rights of conscience. They looked upon God as the centre of all 
truth, and religion as the top-stone of human perfectibility. 

What means, then, what we hear ? for we have heard just the 
opposite insinuated, recently ; and heard it argued that religious 
instruction should be more completely banished from the school room, 
because that was not " the purpose for which our schools were estab- 
lished." Established I When were our schools established ? Long 
generations before we were born. Argued I With all due respect, 
we must say that it argues rather ignorance of our ancestral history. 
We have not so learned the early New-England character and conduct. 
Nothing is further from the fact. As far back as 1642, the General 
Court required that *' religious instruction should be given to all 
children ; " and the statute has been renewed, in some form, from 
that day to this. These men never removed God, or God's truth, 
from their halls of education ; but, on the contrary, he who saw 
most of God, in history, or geometry, or geography, met, most com- 
pletely, their ideal of a guide and instructor of youth — a " nour- 
terer of children." Such was Mr. Philemon Purmont. Were our 
fathers afraid that religious truth would be too much taught to the 
young ? No ! Did they feel the need of special legislation to 
restrict it ? Never ! And was there ever any danger ? Not at all. 
You never knew a child injured, in school, with an excess of religious 
knowledge ; nor have you known a teacher who ran into excesses on 
this subject. Human nature is not apt to err in this direction. 



13 



" But it does," it is said ; " our teachers take the opportunity to 
teach sectarianism." It is a mere bugbear. The j do? Who do? 
Who are they ? What are their names ? Where are the facts ? I 
believe it is libellous. " But they will, if they do not now." Who 
is alarmed? Real religion is not, I think. It is not generally. It 
is pseudo-reWgion, or none at all, that is terrified at sectarianism. 
" But what if these schools should all be taught at length by hetero- 
dox instructors. Would you be willing that such persons should 
pray in the presence of your children ? " Most certainly. Let 
them pray by all means. Woe betide us, indeed, when teachers 
shall be selected because of their heterodoxy, or, what is worse, infi- 
delity. Our schools would deteriorate with a fearful rapidity. Yet 
far be it from us, far be it from future generations, to insist that Cal- 
vinism, or Methodism, or Baptism, or any ism, should be made a test. 
*' But it takes so much time." How much ? " Well — too much ; 
five minutes, in case of extemporaneous prayer; and sometimes a 
teacher overruns this, and spends six or seven minutes." Indeed ; 
and did a teacher ever happen to overrun his time in Latin, and rob 
arithmetic as much ? and so you turned the Latin out-doors, and would 
not have it taught at all ; or, only some six sentences, and the same 
every day ? Is this logic ? It seems like the sheerest subterfuge. 
Imagine such arguments in the mouth of Bradford, Brewster, Car- 
ver, John Winthrop, Edward Winslow — those pious, profound, 
patriotic Pilgrims. Alas for the degeneracy of our day. Never was 
there a more unnecessary and impertinent invasion of public senti- 
ment and the public peace, in respect to a time-honored usage, while 
none, or next to none, were clamorous against it. There are those 
who fear, or seem to fear, lest religion shall get out of its place, and 
occupy some area that does not belong to it. Men of other days 
deemed religion always in place, and possessed of a preemtion-claim 
to every inch of human territory. When will the superficial infidel- 
ity of these times, return to a profounder faith, to a profounder intel- 
ligence, too. 

" The happiness and good-order of a people," says the Massachu- 
sets Declaration of Rights, which originated in the wisdom of a wiser 
age, "essentially depends upon piety, religion, and morality. 



14 



It is the duty and the right of all men in society publicly to wor- 
ship the Supreme Being, the great Preserver of the universe. No 
person shall be restrained in his liberty, for worshipping God in the 
manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own con- 
science." Has this declaration been read, and remembered, of 
late ? Have the rights of conscience been respected ? Have the 
rights of reason and religion been profoundly recognized ? 

in. The subject leads us to remark, once more, that a right view of 
human education justifies the legal statutes, that we now find, in favor 
of religion in our school-systems. " It shall be the duty of the 
School Committee to require the daily reading of some portion of 
the Bible, in the common English version." And again ; " It shall 
be the duty of professors of colleges, teachers in academies, and all 
other instructors of youth, to exert their best endeavors to impress on 
the minds of their pupils, the principles of piety, temperance, sobri- 
ety, etc., those virtues which are the ornament of society ; and it 
shall be the duty of these instructors to lead their pupils, as their 
ages will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of these 
virtues, to preserve a republican constitution, secure the blessings of 
liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness." And " it 
shall be the duty of ministers of the gospel, and others, to exert 
their influence in the several towns, that the youth shall regularly 
attend ; for," as it is in the preamble of our Constitution, " the en- 
couragement of these things tends to the honor of God and the ad- 
vancement of the Christian religion." 

Now, these are interesting enactments, and we know why they 
stand recorded. Our wisest statesmen and law-givers have perceived 
that the whole being of man should be educated ; that his religious 
capacities, and all his capacities, should be disciplined, and supplied 
with their proper nutriment. They have seen that religion and edu- 
cation go hand in hand, and that the welfare of society demands that 
piety be inculcated as a prime virtue ; that it be put Jirst, and im- 
pressed upon the opening intellect and affections of the young. Our 
legislators have clearly understood, that all education should be re- 
ligiously conducted, in order to the morality and prosperity, the peace 
and happiness, and all the interests of a community ; inasmuch as 
history has taught them, as it has taught every observer, that vice, 



:^i^i;i-::-:^; 



15 

and disease, and poverty, and wretchedness always increase, in pro- 
portion as ignorance and irreligion abound. It is thus that the vital 
relationship of church and state, so far as reciprocal influence is con- 
cerned, is distinctly recognized in the organic status of the republic 
The law does not allow that the meetina: house and school house are 
antagonistic agencies, but fitted to act together, for the education 
and elevation of man's immortal nature. 

But this law is opposed. The Bible is objected to. *' Cast 
it out," says the papist, the infidel, and the radical, "for there 
is a large sprinkling of Irish Catholic children in our schools, and 
their parents do not approve of our protestant version ; and there 
may yet be children of Jewish parents, who deny the !New Testa- 
ment ; and Chinese, who deny both the New and the Old. Then there 
are different denominations, and some deny certain parts of Script- 
ure, and no two perfectly agree in its interpretation, and some of 
us do not believe in the Bible at all. What ! are you going to con- 
fine us all to this book as a common creed ? " Yes, says the pro- 
foundest statesmanship, for there is but one book that intelligent men 
can believe to be the Inspired Word of God ; and the education of the 
human mind cannot be carried on and perfected without this unpar- 
alleled volume. We cannot leave out this sacred classic, this high- 
est of human literature, in the development of the individual man. 
But we bind no man's belief^ — we lord it over no man's conscience — 
we do not compel the children to believe what their instructors tell 
them — we cannot ; not even in arithmetic, or any of the rudiments. 
This is a land of free, independent opinions. Parents may contra- 
dict, if they choose, all that the teacher has taught — unteach it, if 
they desire ; and the parent must have small influence over his child, 
who cannot, if he please, at least in the matter of moral and reli- 
gious convictions, counteract, essentially, all it has learned at school. 
If most do not, it is because they do not wish to. Bead the Bible, 
from beginning to end, to your children at home, says American Law 
and Liberty, and show them, as you profess to know, by your elabo- 
rate commentary on each text, by the intrinsic inferiority of its truth, 
by the liglit of its history, and its pernicious effects on society, that the 
Bible is a false record, and unworthy of their confidence. We do 
not say this would be well for you, or wise. But you have the right. 



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16 



Tour children are your own, says the law, and we cannot stand 
between them and you. But as long as the Bible appears to be the 
word of God, and America rules America ; as long as religion 
recommends itself to the human mind, and its influence seems so 
salutary, "shall it be the duty of the Committee to require the 
daily reading of some portion of the Bible, in the common English 
version. And beside, it shall be the duty of all instructors of youth 
to use their best endeavors to impress on the minds of their pupils, 
the principles of piety ; and lead them, as their ages will admit, 
into a clear understanding of its tendency to promote their future 
happiness." 

But this law is opposed. It is even repudiated. Teachers shall 
not " exert their best endeavors to impress piety on the minds of 
children and youth." They shall not " endeavor to lead their pupils 
into a clear understanding of piety." They shall not say anything 
about it. They shall not utter a word of explanation or enforce- 
ment. Above all, they shall not presume to pray, — anything but 
this, in the presence of the children, and Almighty God — the God 
of nature, and the God of the Bible. What, now, is this opposition, 
but nullification of Massachusetts law ; for how can a teacher " exert 
Ms best endeavors to impress the principles of piety upon his pu- 
pils/' if he may not, in faith, and humility, and thanksgiving, and 
without restraint, recognize God, the Giver of all good — the Being 
in whom he, and those confided to his care, have lived, from " dawn 
till dewy eve," from night again till morn ; or, if prayer must be 
protruded," which is the same thing in effect, beyond the limits of 
school hours, and he left to labor under the reproach of being an 
inferior and unnecessary accomplishment. No teacher can use " his 
best endeavors,'' as the law directs, under such an incumbrance — 
such an incubus. It is in vain for him to attempt to " lead his 
pupils into a clear understanding of piety," if he may not lead them, 
in prayer, to the Source of all piety, and the Author of all truth. 

" But the teacher is not forbidden to pray. He may offer the 



* " Should Teachers think it their duty to introduce other (religious) exercises, 
before or after school hours, with the consent of the school, the Committee claim 
no right, and have no desire, to throw any obstacles in the way of so doing." 






17 

Lord's Prayer.'* Is anything better ? " To this we reply, that the 
constant repetition of this formula is not prayer, " Yain repetition " 
was particularly prohibited. It was heathenish. Incessant repetition 
renders any truth vain, powerless that is, as everybody knows. Ad- 
hering literally to this phraseology, varying never from this monoto- 
nous litany, who listens to you, at length ? who is impressed ? who is 
awake ? and the children are asleep first, as a matter of course. 
Children are soon listless to liturgies and formularies ; sooner than 
adults. They may be taught to recite them, like parrots, and with 
great advantage, especially young children. But it is impossible for 
an instructor to " exert his best endeavors, to impress piety " upon 
minds at all advanced, if he is tied up to a form ; and this is well 
understood by every one. 

And then, where shall we learn the Lord's Prayer ? Shall we 
leai'n it in Luke, or Matthew ? They do not record it alike. Surely 
they would, if it was to be endlessly repeated. At least, John would 
have reproduced the genuine. What is to be done? Will not this 
difference, in different schools, be dangerous ? What shall be done ? 
Must not the Committee make out a Har7nony of the two Evangel- 
ists ? Are they sensible of the function they have assumed ? 

Moreover, the disciples were not instructed to use these words ; nor 
is there any proof that either Christ, or his disciples, ever did employ 
precisely this form, though they often prayed, using other expressions, 
and these intermingled. But they were always to pray " in this 
manner P "After this manner, therefore, pray ye." "When ye 
pray, say," in substance^ " Our Father, which art in heaven," etc. 
This was the meaning of the command. It was to be a model of 
devotion, not a liturgy ; a model, not a mummery ; a pattern for us, 
not a paternoster. We do not use models in machinery much, but 
what is made from the model. As for this perfect prayer, we are to 
copy it, in its spirit, in its simplicity, in its comprehensiveness, into 
all our petitions. It is to be expanded. It is the whole of Christian- 



* "Abington, May 30, 1859. 
To the Teachers in the Schools of Ahinglon. 

At a meeting of the School Board, held this day, the following vote was passed : 
That the reading of the Scriptures, and the use of the Lord's Prayer, are the only 
religious exercises required or permitted in our public schools, during school hours," 




18 



ity, in the smallest compass. It is the condensation of all the great 
facts pertaining to the Kingdom of God in Christ. Let it enlarge, 
like leaven, in the soul. Like the rising light, let it increase and 
pervade the entire sphere of christian doctrine. Such is the philoso- 
phy of the Lord's Prayer ; such its signification. Who would have 
thought it was to be sent forth, in the nineteenth century, like a 
Papal Bull from the chair of St. Peter, to bind the liberty of speech 
and thought. Truly we have returned to the days of dogmatism. 

And why is not the Bible forbidden ? One cannot read it, and be- 
lieve it, without believing in prayer as much. Its purport is the same 
as prayer ; it is the root and reservoir of prayer. It may be made 
the organ of sectarian instruction, as well as prayer. There cannot 
be such a difference between reading a chapter, and repeating it. 
These teachers, that cannot be trusted, can collect passages, as potent, 
and sectarian, if you please to term it so, as their own precatory ex- 
pressions would be. Is it safe ? Should not teachers be required to 
read in course ? And what if they should chance to light upon the 
fifty-first Psalm ; or, the prayer of the publican ? Might they not 
translate those penitential paragraphs into the spirit and letter of 
their own petitions ? Could this be tolerated ? Only the Lord's Prayer 
is allowed. Is there any security, in fact, till the Bible is forbidden ? 
** But it is a good reading-book. The Committee have no disposition 
to exclude it." Grant as much ; I am glad to believe it. And be- 
side, the law ! that is explicit and peremptory. " The Bible shall be 
read." Not, however, as a reading-book, especially ; that is not the 
design. It is not the best reading-book, that it should be read, day 
by day, year after year. There are hundreds better. But it " shall 
be read " as a religious book. Then why not permit any Bible prayer ? 
Is it all worthy of being read, but only five verses fit to be uttered in 
supplication ? Strange inconsistency ; for the Bible is a great prayer- 
book. It is full of forms — inspired forms, such as these ; viz. : "God 
be merciful to me ; " *' Create in me a clean heart ; renew a right 
spirit within me ; " " Cast me not away from thy presence ; take not 
thy Holy Spirit from me ; " " Lord, save, or I perish. " Is there any 
objection to these prayers ? It would certainly give a greater variety, 
and help the teacher, " in leading his pupils, to a clear understand- 
ing of piety," as the law requires. You never would dream of re- 



19 

stricting the teacher to one set of words, in chemistry, and history. 
It would be so absurd ; it would be so arbitrary ; it would be such an 
abuse of knowledge, and such a waste of language. For what was 
the rest of good old English made ? one well might ask. Shame, 
then, that there should be such a restriction in the utterance, and 
conveyance of religious truth. 

And has it come to this ? Must the teacher be so unmanned ? Has 
he no discretion '* Must he be meddled with, and dictated to, in every 
detail of duty ? Shall he be so hampered, and led with leading strings ? 
Where is the constitutional authority for this ? Shall the very decree 
of the Commonwealth be broken, which ordains that " his liberty shall 
not be restrained ? " And shall the truth be bound ? Is this the 
boasted liberality, which we hear so much about ; or, is it bigotry, 
and a timid apprehension, lest the truth shall have " free course, and 
run, and be glorified ? " for the truth is, that prayer is a part of the 
education of a dependent being — a superior part; and when prayer 
is discountenanced, and cast into contempt, education is undermined, 
cast down, and finally destroyed. This prohibition of prayer strikes, 
therefore, though unintentionally, at the very foundation of human 
interest. It is asking too much ; reason refuses. An enlightened 
Christian conscience, as well as a large and liberal intelligence, re- 
fuses to be silent. It will not contend, but retires from the field." It 
is the age of Protestantism. Principle is worth more than place. 
How honorable the sacrifice, when it is for conscience sake, for 
Christ's sake, and the sake of those for whom Christ died. 

Now I say these things in love ; not in anger or enmity. I have 
spoken earnestly, as I must, but not unkindly. I have said nothing 
to the discredit of private character or citizenship. Let no man ac- 
cuse me of personality. Principles, not persons. If any one has per- 
sonal or political purposes to serve in this matter, I have none of it. 
We are on the eve of no election ; and, for one, I care not who ad- 
minister our public affairs, so be that they are administered wisely, 
and with God in view. But as long as I stand in this place, I shall 



* Several teachers in town have resigned their situations, in consequence of this 
regulation. 




20 



fearlessly make application of religious trutt, when necessary, to 
whatever, and whomsoever, it may affect. 

And I shall not close at this time, without adverting to the mag- 
nitude of the trust, which we commit to teachers, and guardians of 
youth. Theirs is no ordinary, or every-day undertaking. It is sec- 
ond to none — the tuition of rational, immortal, accountable being. 
It interests me in the man I meet, man or woman, to know that they 
have thus the interests of the rising generation in charge. You 
seem to see scores, or even hundreds, of human beings comprehended 
in one. And they have not only a great task to fulfill, teachers and 
officers, but numerous and peculiar trials, to struggle against. They 
are beset on all sides, by young and old. Children look at facts with 
a one-sided view, and the rest of us are but children of a larger 
growth, while many among us are forward to find fault. Now these 
teachers and guardians are on the ground ; they are in the field ; 
they must generally know best, I admit. I would be slow to take 
exception to what they have determined. I would only open my lips 
in condemnation, when they have done that which is manifestly un- 
just and indefensible ; or, when they have adopted measures in pal- 
pable opposition to the will and word of God. They need our co-ope- 
ration. Let us co-operate whenever we can, consistently with the 
truth. Let them share largely in our sympathies, and be abundantly 
remembered in our prayers, that they may all be guided by the good 
hand of God, in training up the children and youth of this town, for 
usefulness, and honor, and immortality. 



MP 



liiiliif 




